Are you a fashion student and are suddenly feeling drained of inspirations? Well, do not seek complexity nor look for extraordinary themes. Some of the most striking visual languages arise indeed from simplicity and in particular from repetitive patterns in vibrant colors. This principle is central, for example, to the work of Claude Viallat, as proved by his works "160/1986" and "161/1986", two monumental pieces that exemplify his radical approach to painting.
A founding member of the Supports/Surfaces movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the south of France, Viallat played a crucial role in redefining the very nature of painting. The movement sought to deconstruct traditional artistic conventions, shifting the focus from representation to the physicality of materials. The stretcher, canvas, and pigment, elements typically meant to disappear behind an image, became indeed the subject. Artists like Viallat, abandoned the conventional stretched canvas in favor of unframed, draped, or suspended fabrics that in Viallat's case extended outside the parameters of traditional paintings, emphasizing the material's presence in space.
Viallat's commitment to repetition and chance rejects traditional composition, instead allowing the surface to dictate the rhythm of the work. His method, often involving ink dyeing and industrial paints, minimizes the artist's hand, reinforcing Supports/Surfaces' pursuit of neutrality and material autonomy.
In "160/1986" and "161/1986", Viallat pushes this exploration further by liberating the surface from rigid supports, allowing vast, supple expanses of fabric to become independent entities. Using his signature stenciled motif, he repeats the same biomorphic shape across the canvas in bold acrylic colors. This technique, favoring flat tints and the absence of nuance, eliminates depth and perspective, reinforcing the idea that painting is not a window onto another world, but a physical object in its own right.
These works embody Viallat's radical dismantling of traditional pictorial hierarchies, where the act of painting is no longer bound by illusionistic depth but unfolds as an exploration of surface, structure, and color itself, a rhythmic interplay of form, materiality, and chromatic intensity. Executed in 1986, these two large-scale works are part of the Marcel Lehmann-Lefranc Collection and are currently included in Sotheby's "Contemporary Discoveries" auction (20th February, Paris).
Comments